Tashkent

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

The yellow-brick Kukeldash Madrasah in Tashkent glows in low evening sun, framed by a stone threshold and a wooden bench.

Tashkent is a leafy, rebuilt Silk Road capital where Soviet-era monuments, old madrasahs and plov lunches sit within a few metro stops of each other.

The place

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and the largest city in Central Asia, home to about three million people at an elevation of 455 m. It lies in the north-east of the country on a well-watered plain, and the water shapes the place: canals, fountains and long lines of plane and poplar trees keep the streets shadier than the surrounding steppe would suggest. The layout is really two cities. In the old quarter, lanes of low walled houses, madrasahs and bazaars follow the pattern of a Silk Road trading town. Beyond it, broad avenues, huge squares, concrete apartment blocks and a metro come from the decades after the 1966 earthquake, when the city was replanned as a showcase of Soviet design. Newer glass towers and landscaped parks now sit alongside both. Distances are larger than a map suggests, so most visitors combine the metro with short taxi rides booked through an app. Summers are hot and dry, winters can be cold and grey, and spring and autumn are the pleasant seasons. Tashkent is not a city of one great monument. Its appeal is in the mix: a Russian Orthodox cathedral a short ride from a Sufi shrine, a Lutheran church not far from a crafts madrasah, and tea houses and plov counters in between. Many travellers treat it as the gateway to Samarkand and Bukhara, but a couple of unhurried days here repay the effort, especially for anyone curious about how Central Asia lived through the twentieth century.

Its story

Tashkent's name is usually explained as "Stone City", from Turkic tash and Persian kent, a reading recorded by the scholar Abu Rayhan Biruni. Linguists still argue over older forms, notably Chach, the name the oasis once carried, and some think the stone meaning is a later reshaping or a translation of an even earlier word. Either way, settlement here long predates the present name. Sogdian and Turkic cultures shaped the oasis until Islam arrived in the middle of the eighth century. The Mongol sack of 1219 flattened the city, yet its place on the Silk Road made recovery worthwhile, and trade returned. For a spell in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Tashkent ran itself as a city-state, until the Khanate of Kokand regained control. Russian forces took the city in 1865 and made it the administrative centre of Russian Turkestan, which is why a European-style quarter of churches and offices grew up beside the old town. The Soviet decades brought rapid growth and a changing population, partly through forced deportations from across the union, so that people of many origins settled here. The 1966 earthquake left large areas in ruins. The answer was a fresh plan of wide avenues, squares and housing districts, and much of the centre still follows that design. Recent decades have added museums and monuments that give more space to Uzbek history, but the Soviet layer remains very visible in the street plan, the metro and the big public buildings.

What to see

Culture

Tashkent's culture is layered. There is Islamic scholarship and Sufi devotion in the old town, Russian and German churches from the imperial period, and Soviet-era theatres, museums and monuments across the centre, including the opera and ballet theatre named for the poet Alisher Navoi. Uzbek is the national language, and Russian is still widely understood, which helps visitors who have neither. Hospitality is a point of pride. A guest is likely to be offered tea (choy) almost anywhere, and refusing outright can seem curt, so accepting a cup is the easy way to be polite. Bread is treated with respect and is not left upside down or dropped on the ground. Family and neighbourhood ties matter, and weddings and celebrations fill restaurants and halls on summer weekends. Religion is practised openly but quietly. Mosques and madrasahs are working places of worship as well as monuments, while the capital also has cafes, theatres and music venues with a relaxed, cosmopolitan feel. Visitors will notice how many different communities share the city, and how comfortable most residents are talking about it. A friendly question about food or family usually opens a conversation faster than a question about politics. Dress modestly at mosques and shrines, take your shoes off wherever others do, and ask before photographing people, especially women and worshippers.

What to wear

Traditional Uzbek dress in Tashkent centres on the doppi, a small embroidered skullcap, and the chapan, a padded long robe worn by men on formal and winter occasions. Women's festive dress uses ikat, a silk or silk-and-cotton cloth whose threads are resist-dyed before weaving, giving the blurred, feathery patterns known as abr. Atlas and adras are related fabrics. Suzani, large embroidered panels, hang on walls and appear in bridal households. Such dress mostly turns up at weddings, national holidays, folk performances and craft shops. Day to day, people in the capital wear what is common in any city: jeans, shirts, dresses and suits for work, with some women choosing headscarves and longer lines, and many younger people following international fashion. Visitors fit in easily in smart-casual clothes. Summer is hot and dry, so light cotton or linen with long sleeves and trousers or long skirts works better than shorts, and a hat helps. Winter is cold, so pack a proper coat. At mosques, madrasahs and shrines, cover shoulders and knees, and women may want a scarf for the head. Shoes should be comfortable on paving, marble steps and the occasional dusty lane, and easy to slip off at doorways.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. March–April and October–November, when days are mild and the trees are in leaf or colour; July and August are hot and dry, and winter is cold and often grey.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Fly into Tashkent International Airport, a short taxi ride from the centre. Use the official taxi rank outside the terminal or the Yandex Go app, and agree the fare first. City buses leave from just across the car park, and the metro serves the centre. Trains and flights link Tashkent with Samarkand and Bukhara.

Budget. low

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources